June 19, 2011 McCook Nebraska Supercell

If you want a cool effect on the wild night supercell images below, I
suggest playing Exogenesis Symphony Pt 1: Overture by Muse. Hell it's a
cool effect as it is for a song, no need for cool storm images lol. But
it's kinda cool. If the storm could pick a song to have playing for it,
it would pick that song.

I've chased long enough now to know bad luck, as well as pretty bad
pattern to go with it, won't last forever. I also realize a good deal of
my chase years, the better stuff hasn't shown up till later in the year.
But June 19 is getting at least fairly late. Summer and fall can go
either way and happen on less than obvious days when it goes well. To
this point, I was solidly working on my least favorite chase season.
Seriously, one great mammatus display to show for the year, other than a
whole lot of hail video. It's really not a good feeling for a chaser and
the poor year in the plains isn't much support. I mean you don't feel
much better just because the season has largely sucked(in the plains).
Though yeah it's worse to see nothing with a lot going on too.

I knew these two days ahead, June 19th and 20th, had a good deal of
potential, but even if they panned out, would I be there at the right
time is always a big ass question mark. Sometimes you really get it in
your head you can do no right. But you know that doesn't last forever.
Repeatedly before this chase day and on the way out there, I would think
to myself, what will I have witnessed and "taken home" come Monday night
on the 20th, after they are both over. I at least, really never think
much about that ahead of time. But over and over and over I kept thinking
that before these two, because it starts to feel as if you damn well
better do right and see something. Pretty silly to drive thousands of
miles around the alley over and over not to. I don't drive all over for
this or that storm, I want some prizes for the effort, knowing those
don't come along often. And knowing a whole lot of the times they do, I
am screwing up. So anyway, more than once I thought to myself, these two
days are do or die days. Felt that way more than any point in chasing
before. Perhaps this rainbow colored circumhorizon arc near North Platte
on the way there was a sign of changes ahead lol. It's pretty messed up
to me the things that would be seen in roughly the following 24 hours.
What would be my most amazing night supercell and then the next day what
would at least be my best tornado still photographs I've taken(which has
never been much to begin with). A lot has to go right but this shouldn't
be so hard after a whole lotta going wrong. Most will never get how much
I really do screw up, because it doesn't contain any images to go on
here. Still learning a lot 13 years in.

One thing I have no interest in, is chasing high plains with lower dew
points. Exceptions happen, but more often than not, with lower dews high
plains produces crap storms as well as points east with similar lower
dews. Mid-50 dews at best in June on the high plains and I'm going to
hopefully not be there. Earlier in the year(or cooler aloft setups) and I
may be more interested. I've grown a distaste for bothering. Give me
dews. And yeah even here is getting to be higher plains. I get to North
Platte and just feeling the air outside the car with your arm made you
want to get out of it. Surface obs showed 66 dew at Lexington and
Holdredge with upper 50s at North Platte. You could tell the western edge
of the better air was between the two somewhere. You could see the warm
front on Goodland radar on the NE/KS border. My target was now there,
where the western edge of the better dews were reaching west along the
front. With the setup you had hot 700mb temps going to nose north, not
far east of there, capping things. Seemed likely you'd get the storms
well east on east side of that and then others back here a bit west of
it. That is what eventually happened. Meanwhile you had to sit there and
wait, as storms formed off the higher terrain in Colorado, one tornado
warned early. I often have a hard time sitting and having patience, but
not with high plains lol. I'll head on west only if it looks like some
better dews are out there. It all becomes relative with elevation, but
still.

I went south and sat at Maywood NE forever. Eventually storms began to
fire to the sw on that front. Soon you had 2 supercells, one further sw
and the lead one still west of highway 83 a long ways, nw of McCook. This
became really annoying. Inflow was due east pretty strong. More often
than not, the lead supercell will be the one to be on(as one behind is
fed its rain cooled air on those easterly winds), but in this case there
was enough n-s difference both could be good for a while. But the lead
one was way out there with no good roads off 83. The west one soon looked
damn good on radar and tornado warned. I made a brief attempt for it(it
was a good ways away) and then flipped back around to drive clear back to
where I first was, north of McCook 8 miles or something. I missed a
tornado on the western one(well I guess I can say I saw one of them but
not much view from a billion miles east) but I didn't care, as the east
one starts to go nuts right as it is crossing highway 83 and I was back
there now.

It was changing rapidly as it approached 83. Looked like it was going
to plant a tornado. I thought I'd have to jet north into the core shortly
if I lost visual. I had started to dive south too late and flipped back
around, wasn't interested in driving under what was moving over the
highway and knew I wasn't going to beat the rfd wrap precip down there.
The view barely north of the track actually stayed good enough I could
see the whole time it was crossing. UPS truck here heading north into the
hail core lol. Turn around, don't drown Mr UPS! It's hailing on us here
actually, can see the stones on the highway.

A rather pregnant base crossing 83. How to chase it now was the
question, thanks to no roads east. I dropped south figuring I can at
least get the sw one now moving east behind this. But it didn't look
overly great.

Driving east of McCook the southwest one took on some beautiful
structure.

The really annoying problem now was the shelf plowing south off the
lead one I was on earlier(right side of image). The sw structure was
heading into soon to be crazy realms. You think to yourself,
noooooooooooooo, a messy big line and shelf is about to ensue. This would
seriously be the case 99 times out of 100 when two big supercells merge,
especially when one already has a big ol bowing shelf with it.

Shelf arriving, cool supercell show over! Or not.

What the hell!!! Before this point I'd met up with Steve Peterson and
JB Dixon. We were driving east ahead of it and you could tell on radar it
was trying to turn into one supercell somehow. This was crazy because
there was a serious bow plowing off the lead one, ahead of the sw one,
well on it. We had little view though thanks to some clouds. We then get
a view that looked good so we pull over, only to rapidly lose the view in
clouds again. I'm pretty sure we did this again several miles later. We
kept going east making sure to take occasional glances back and see if it
was showing itself again. Then while talking with Tyler Burg on the phone
he says how you can see it again and it was sweet. I look out and this
above was now showing again. I sat here just east of Alma NE and had my
mind blown for 40 straight minutes, 10:35 to 11:15 before I had to even
move again. It was still mind blowing through midnight.

Like a big wave, a tsunami in the sky.

The vertical wave wall was just crazy, but then you also had that
really funky curling wall/base up there. It's like a backwards inflow
band(not literally). Often you'll see a mid-level band going the other
way, from away from the storm to the south(left) and then going into the
storm around the northeast side. This was backwards. But really what that
would be(I think) is more or less the "elevated base" to the real
convection above. All the rfd and cool sinking action would be behind
that, which was plowing forward and helping lift the stabilizing lower
levels..making that wild wall/wave. Maybe like if an elevated storm had a
big wall cloud lol. Named items for storm features only do so much as
you'll always have this wide range of "in between" structures.

I have enough stills of this, generally from a same position tripod,
to make a cool timelapse. Guessing a crazy cool time lapse actually. I
now wish I had left it alone the whole time. But it is at least enough so
to make one.

Here come some cloud street roll clouds to add to the scene.

These things looked to be hauling serious ass. The above shutter was 3
seconds for instance.

Sorta like mother nature's blinds, partially open. See me, she says.

That curved deal aloft with the storm, it wasn't like that was a
temporary feature, that wanted to stay there.

Now due north of me, same spot. There were several times you could
make out this at least pseudo funnel up there(up and left pointing down).
Tyler later asked me if I saw the one so he saw them too. Some were
clearly funnels forming as they went around that corner up there.

Pretty sure this was now north of Franklin NE, 11:45 pm. Now shooting
there with Tyler, Evan and Chris.

Still being an other-worldly sight. You really half felt, this thing
is on the wrong planet right now.

It was starting to remind me of the Aurora supercell June 17, 2009 as
it tried to die. Also with that one was this amazingly long drawn out
process of going downhill. Like it establishes its own vortex that
doesn't want to stop sucking up the stable layer below.

This I can tell will be cool on time lapse. It's like if you swing
your arm through water, rising up a wave ahead of it. You can see that
lifting as the upper portions plow forward.

Even now nearing midnight it still had a long way to go before it was
gone all together. And the whole time, even as it was tiny on radar, it
had a nice hook. Probably since it was getting real close to the Hastings
radar then.

One of an extreme few cloud to ground bolts. After the chase ended I
did one of the dumber things to have done. I drove back home instead of
just getting a room in Hastings or somewhere. Driving home from Red Cloud
at 12:30 in the morning isn't fun. Got home right around 4:00. Then tried
to grab some fashion of sleep but getting up early enough to head back
west and wind up not overly far from where this chase ended. Spent at
least the same amount as a motel room in gas. So dumb.